Perfect weather for baking biscuits… almond & citrus peel with a meringue topping

I did not remember that it was raining soooo much in London…. within the last week, I experienced biking under the rain and against the wind…

To boost up my moral, I decided to try again one of the recipes from the Rose Bakery cookbook that I tried a few months ago but did not properly baked.

Those little rich biscuits remind me a little of one of my favourite specialty from Aix-en-Provence in France…. the Calissons even if they are made with citrus peel when calissons are made with melon jam…. Anyway, I just did not find the melon jam in London !

Ingredients

• 4 egg whites
• 450 g of icing sugar
• 1/2 a lemon juice
  
• 1 gratted zest of lemon
  
• 320 g of almonds
• 100 g of finely chopped candied citrus peel
  
• 1 tsp of ground cinnamon (and other spices that you like such as ginger, cayenne, cloves, cardamome…)
  

First, start with the meringue:

Whisk the whites until they form stiff peaks and gradually add the sugar until the mixture glows a little.

When all the sugar is incorporated and the mixture is very stiff, incorporate the lemon juice.

Keep about 200 g of the meringue in a bowl for the topping.

With the leftover of meringue start the biscuit dough:

With the paddle, incorporate the ground almonds, mixed peel, lemon zest and spices. Once all the ingredients are mixed and form a dough, taste it, add some spices if needed, mix again and put it in the fridge for at least one hour.

Get 2 to 3 trays prepared with butter and baking paper or silicon mat if you have some.

Dust your working surface and rolling pin with icing sugar and roll the dough til it gets 1 cm thick.

With the shape of your choice (I use circle and stars also but they are tricky to cut!) cut the dough and put each form on the tray.

Roll the leftover into a ball and chill it if needed in order to make more pieces.

While the dough is back to the fridge you can start to brush the tops of the biscuits with the meringue. The meringue has to be neither to thick nor leaking in order to cover the top of the biscuits in a nice flat way.

At that stage, you have to let the biscuits dry with their meringue for at least one hour. If it’s still raining… It gives you plenty of time to start some financiers, chocolate fondants or cannelés mix for example or just getting a good book to read while sipping a hot cup of tea!

Once the biscuits have dried, preheat your oven to 180° and bake the biscuits for about 10 minutes. If you don’t trust your oven put the biscuits on the lower shelves and protect them from colouring too much with a baking tray on the upper shelf.

As for the cookies, don’t overcook them… The meringue has to remain white and the base soft. Let them cool down and if you want to store them, cut them on the baking paper (4×4 or 6×6) and put them on top of each other in a box.

At that stage…. you can prepare another pot of tea and enjoy them….